Professional counsel for fraternity & sorority life

The work behind a funded campaign

Q: Do we need a fundraising consultant, or can we do it ourselves?

Most chapters can run an annual appeal themselves. Consultation earns its fee when the goal is larger than anything the chapter has raised before, when volunteer leadership turns over in the middle of a campaign, or when nobody has the hours to ask several hundred alumni one at a time. That is the work underneath a funded campaign.

Q: What does a capital campaign involve?

A feasibility study first, to learn what your alumni can actually fund. Then a case for support, a volunteer committee recruited and trained, a lead-gift phase before anything is announced publicly, and a solicitation calendar somebody owns. Construction is the visible part. Most of the work happens in the two years before it.

A successful campaign starts long before anyone asks for a gift. It starts with alumni who still feel connected. Reliable records that survive every leadership transition. Pennington helps fraternity and sorority leaders turn those pieces into lasting momentum, with experienced counsel built specifically for the challenges you face.

Let's Talk See Our Results

$1.4B: raised by the chapters we have advised

Once-reliable alumni have gone quiet

Engagement falls off years before the giving does. By the time the newsletter goes unopened, the relationship is already gone.

The same two volunteers, every time

A chapter runs on the people who always say yes, until they stop. Committees that are never recruited or trained do not survive a turnover.

A house that needs more than paint

Deferred maintenance becomes a capital project, and a capital project needs a case, a plan, and a goal grounded in something real.

A campaign that never starts

Nobody wants to name a number they are not sure of, so the goal stays hypothetical and the campaign stays on the agenda.

Fundraising and Feasibility Studies

A feasibility study tests what your alumni base can actually fund before anyone commits to a number. It replaces a goal set from what the project costs with one grounded in what alumni said, and it becomes the plan the campaign then runs on.

Know your strongest donor prospects before setting the goal
Hear directly from alumni about what will inspire their support
Give volunteers a realistic campaign plan they can believe in
Move from from planning to fundraising with experienced counsel beside you

See how feasibility works

Campaign materials and floor plans on a planning desk.

Alumni Engagement & Communications

Alumni stop giving long before they say so. They stop opening the newsletter, stop coming to events, and stop answering the phone. The work is rebuilding that relationship in the years when nobody is asking for money.

Print newsletters, because a generationally mixed alumni base still reads paper
Digital newsletters designed, automated and sent
Alumni contact records kept current as people move

Build alumni engagement

Alumnae cutting the ribbon at a renovated chapter house.

Websites & Member Management

Alumni cannot give to a chapter they cannot find, and nobody owns the member list. A chapter website and a member database put the record in one place and keep it there through every officer transition.

A chapter site with news, an event calendar and a searchable alumni directory
Email blasts sent from the same platform
An alumni database kept current and automatically tracked

Build a strong alumni connection

Campaign spotlight:
The Sigma Chi chapter house

“Pennington really knows what they’re doing. Our success was way beyond our expectations.”

Bob Seidell
Campaign Chairman, Sigma Chi, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
The Sigma Chi chapter at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln needed more than a renovation. Its alumni were being asked to preserve the character of a historic home while creating a chapter house equipped for generations of brothers still to come. The campaign funded improvements to bedroom suites and bathrooms, the kitchen and dining room, study areas, the slate roof, and the historic exterior. $2,676,351 raised to date.

See Our Results

How the work divides
	With Pennington	In-house
Knowing what alumni can give	A feasibility study with named prospects, rated and tested before a goal is set.	A goal set from what the project costs, then hope the alumni base supports it.
Who asks for the lead gifts	A trained volunteer committee, with us in the room for the largest conversations.	Whoever is willing, which is usually the same two alumni every time.
When leadership turns over	The plan and the donor record stay with the chapter, not with one volunteer.	Momentum restarts with each new board.
What it asks of your volunteers	Committee meetings, and the asks only they can make.	All of it, on top of jobs and families.

Do we need a fundraising consultant, or can we do it ourselves?

Every chapter knows a few alumni who can jumpstart a project with an early commitment. But sustaining a capital campaign takes consistent outreach, volunteer coordination, and someone accountable every day for keeping it moving. Volunteers are essential, but careers and families compete for their time. Pennington provides that continuity — managing strategy, maintaining momentum, and driving conversations toward the outcome you want.

What does a capital campaign involve?

The first step for a campaign is a feasibility study to understand what your alumni think and feel about the proposed project and their interest in it. Following the feasibility study, Pennington will help develop a case for support, recruit and train a volunteer committee, partner with this committee for the major gifts phase, and then move into the public phase of the campaign. Construction is the visible part but most of the work happens years before it.

Where does most of the money actually come from?

A small number of donors. Around eighty percent of what a campaign raises typically comes from twenty percent of the donors, and the top ten gifts alone often equal about half the total. That is why the study identifies and rates prospects before anyone sets a goal.

Tell us what's really going on

We'll talk through your chapter, your house, and your alumni, without a sales pitch. We'll be candid about whether we're the right fit to help.

Reach Out Subscribe

A real conversation, no pitch
An honest read on what we would do
You decide with your board